Thursday, June 27, 2013

i did it

This year I had the pleasure of being the Chair of the Parent Council at our school. I've been Co-Chair the past couple of years with my best girl ML, but this time I was "flying solo"/ Of course one never does these things truly solo, there were lots of other fabulous ladies at the table, but ML always ran the meetings and I just added here and there. Now, of course, most people who know me know that I don't do these sorts of things on my own, but here we are. So I survived the year and didn't make too big of a mess of things, I don't think. I ran meetings and met some new friends and my world didn't implode.

So here we are at the end of the school year. Our school only goes to grade six, so we send our grade sixes off to their new school with a celebration which looks a lot like a graduation, but it's not a graduation. Make sense? Our council gives an award every year to the grade six student who is an active and caring member of the school, their family and the wider community. Somebody has to present that award at the celebration and that someone was me. This is normally another ML thing, but she wasn't able to do it for a few reasons...  1) I was Chair, 2) She was attending the celebration as a guest and, 3) Her son and another boy from the class were being presented with the award. So Shanny needed to put on her big girl panties and do it.

I wrote a little speech, read it to Mike (he said it was good) and then kept practicing it until I was able to get through it without tripping over my tongue. I actually wasn't too nervous about it which really surprised me. Of course that was before we got there and I realized I would be presenting last!! Oh my! By the time my turn came my poor heart was just a thumping. Of course Mike was just rolling his eyes at me. He's the guy that's given 15 minute long speeches in front of the Mayor, I was getting up there to read a 90 second speech in front of nineteen sixth graders and their parents. Of course it cannot be over stressed that I do not do public speaking. Ever. It's so far out of my comfort zone I can't even tell you.

But I did it and it was okay. At least I think it was. It's all just a blur. I spoke with the Grade six teacher afterwards, he asked if I was nervous, I replied, you betcha and he said you couldn't tell. I think he's a damn dirty liar, but I appreciated it nonetheless. So yeah, I survived my first public speaking engagement. I still can't even believe I did it. A year or so ago you wouldn't have been able to get me to do that for love or money. I'm proud of myself for doing it, sure it was only a minute in a half, but really that sort of thing is my Mount Everest and I feel like I just skipped to the top. So yeah.... mental health check in... things are great. I'm great. Life is very good indeed.


5 comments:

Betsy Hart said...

NICE JOB! I am sure you did wonderfully. I still get nervous even speaking in front of my church and that is only about 50 at max!

Julie said...

proud of you too! :)

Chantal said...

Good job Shan! I mean being school concil chair by yourself is huge! And public speaking is icing on the cake! You rock!

Bibliomama said...

As someone well-acquainted with anxiety and fear of public speaking, may I hang this fifty-pound medal on you? Being the chair all year is awesome enough of you, but doing something like that that really scares you is so great. Way to go.

Shan said...

Betsy - Let's not go too crazy. I got the job done, but I have a way to go until I'm in Mike's league. He's really great.

Julie - thanks :)

Chantal - Thank you. I ended up having a lot of fun with this whole year.

Bibliomama - Thanks so much! I gratefully accept your giant medal.